SENATE BUDGET AND APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE
STATEMENT TO
ASSEMBLY, No. 2813
STATE OF NEW JERSEY
DATED: MARCH 17, 2025
The Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee reports
favorably Assembly Bill No. 2813.
This bill will enter New Jersey into the Social Work Licensure
Compact. The compact establishes a multistate license system in
which an individual licensed at the clinical, master’s, or bachelor’s
level in social work needs only to obtain licensure in one state that
is a party to the compact in order to practice as a social worker in
another member state to the compact, so long as certain
requirements established under the compact are met by the
individual. Under the bill, provisions are established regarding,
among other items, the authority of a member state’s licensing
authority; how an adverse action against a multistate licensee is
managed; the set-up of the Social Work Licensure Compact
Commission and its Executive Committee; the collection of data on
member states; and how a member state may elect to withdraw from
the compact.
As reported by the committee, Assembly Bill No. 2813 is identical
to Senate Bill No. 2688, which was also reported by the committee on
this date.
FISCAL IMPACT:
The Office of Legislative Services (OLS) concludes that annual
State expenditures will increase and State revenues may decrease by
indeterminate amounts under the bill, which will enter the State into
the interstate Social Work Licensure Compact.
The OLS cannot quantify the net fiscal effects on New Jersey’s
State Board of Social Work Examiners, given the lack of sufficient
information regarding: (1) the increase in board operating expenses
from joining the Social Workers Licensure Compact and regulating
additional out-of-state social workers who practice in New Jersey; and
(2) the decrease in license fee revenues from an unknown number of
social workers practicing in this State who reside in other compact
states who no longer will apply for a New Jersey license.
The State’s participation in the Social Work Licensure Compact
may result in ongoing operating costs for New Jersey’s State Board of
Social Work Examiners, which licenses certified social workers,
licensed social workers, and licensed clinical social workers. The OLS
also notes there could be one-time expenditures from any modification 2
that may have to be made to the existing social worker licensee data
system to comply with compact requirements.
As the State Board of Social Work Examiners is statutorily
required to pay for its operating expenses out of its fee collections, the
OLS notes that the board may adjust its license fee amounts, if
necessary, to account for any significant changes in its finances from
joining this interstate compact.